LINKS

Saturday, September 22, 2007

I see that I have been using silk flowers quite a bit lately!! It was not a conscious thing!! Added leaves to this one and really like the look!! The little butterfly is a plastic embellishment that I just glued on. Was the perfect colour to go with the cardstock and the flowers.

I bought some red hydrangeas on Thursday to include in my Christmas cards. They were all on sale for 50% off at Michaels!! The only time to really buy them!!

Another decorative vellum card!! I really like that I can create the vellum to coordinate with the images I am using!! Another set I bought on the weekend that I am very happy with!! I coloured the white brads with the chalk stamp pad ink and dried them with my heat gun. Be sure you hold them with something that can take the heat - not your fingers!!

I have come to the end fo the rose silk flower layers and the stickers!! I am amazed at how many cards I have been able to create with these few coordinating bits of supplies. I really like the look of this one!! I used a small Cuttlebug Thanks embossing folder. I used a textured cardstock and it unfortunately smooth out the texture of the carstock when it embossed the words. Good to know for future reference. I ripped it from the card front and used just the part that embossed and that worked very well. Stippled the silks again to help them coordinate with the whole look of the card!!

Created these for my monthly ATC swap in one of my groups. The theme was Blue - Asian. I had received this wonderful thin blue asian paper from my daughter and it was perfect for these. I added some laser printed images of asian woman from my collection of downloaded images. Added a gold charm and a fortune to the first one, used an asian background stamp gold embossed along with another Dymo printed sticker on the second one, used a greenish blue junk mail background, a fortune and a strip of the paper on the third. On the fourth, I cut out an image of a couple asian girls and added the friends. These were extras from a class I did earlier this year!!

I put all of my extra printed pieces into a file folder when I have finished a project. I am always amazed at how somewhere down the line I will find just what I need in that folder especially for ATCs!!

Created this little book for my daughter. It is filled with little pages of things she likes to do along with a few practical ideas. I printed the pages and then punched them all in the corner and added page reinforcements on both sides. I made the covers with heavy cardstock and decorated the front one with script, a sticker tag and some Dymo words which I laser printed on label. Easy way to make your own stickers!! I used a screw and post for the corner and added a string so she could hang it where it would be convenient for her to find it when she needed some inspiration!! Really happy the way this little book came together and I hope it will a fun little tool for her to use!!

These cards are the samples for a Deorative Vellum class I developed and was scheduled to teach last weekend. The class did not run but I will be hanging on to the cards for when I do have the opportunity to teach the class in the future. The class teaches you how to make your own decorative vellum to use in your cardmaking or scrapbooking!! Therese

A few more with the same theme. Here I layered several silk flowers to make a fuller looking accent and add leaves to two of them. The leaves were sort of just hanging around because I had removed them from the stems along with the flowers. I was not sure what I would be doing with them. I like the way they turned out and will consider using the last design for a Christmas card with the red silk flowers,a green or gold ribbon and the D'vine Swirl cuttelbug embossing folder.

Had fun creating these cards! Used scrapbook paper and some coordinating tags. Used my new to me SU French Script background stamp which I bought on the weekend!! Really glad I bought it.

I stippled the flowers to make them work with the cardstock and layout. Very handy to be able to use ink to change the colours of the silks. I used a swirly stencil and my stipple brush again to add some dimension to the cardstock.

Made a couple of these for my card exchange group. Really like the way that the Cuttlebug embossing folders add dimension to cardstock. I used the Stylized Flower folder on this card. Added some ribbon and a silk flower for a quick and easy card.

Tuesday, September 04, 2007

More pages!!

Upper left - vintage men! This image is the back of a playing card. Available on my MMM site - follow the link in my signature. I cut out the money from scrapbooking paper and punched the motif I glued to a green disc from a $1 sticker sheet. The 1/2" SU punch was just the right size to punch it out. Works perfectly on the disc. I stamped several different images on the black background with my White Moolight Brilliance pad. It does not show up well on the scan. There is also a strip of fiber glass screening which I coloured with my green Memories pad under the left hand side of the image and under the disc embellishment. The Friends is a sticker I created by laser printing on labels with the Dymo font.

Upper right - Children's theme. I used a piece of decorative "faux leather" paper at the top of this page. Added the image to the bottom and then cut a scrap strip from a $1 store sticker page as a bridge between the two - worked very well. Added a few flourishes and "share" and I was done!

Lower left - Cut out the image and layered it onto a piece of scrapbook paper which I stamped with my SU harlequim background in White Brilliance. Subtle - exactly what I wanted. Added the B which I created using my new Doodle Block Sizzix alphabet set I got at Michaels on clearance on Saturday!! Yeah what at deal!! Works very nicely in my Cuttlebug!! Added the rest of the quote in marker. Had to redo it several times as the marker was resisting a bit on the Brilliance ink. Added my Dymo sticker and was done!

Lower right - children theme! This was my first one. Stippled and stamped on the scrapbook paper and then layered the trimmed image over that. Just love this little girl. She can be in charge!! I stamped the B with an outline alphabet on a page of text and embossed it. Then cut it out and watercoloured it. Stamped "in charge" on the image and added the rest of the quote in brown Sharpie.

So those are the pages I created over the weekend!! They are ready to be mailed today and one of the extra ones is going out as a RAK!!

Have really enjoyed the creative process!! Thanks to those who are ahead of me in this process for sharing their ideas, images and techniques! There is much wonderful inspiration out there!!

Upper left - children's theme. The saying is "Be as children". I cut out a letter from a magazine for the B and hand lettered the rest with a gold gel pen. The colour printed image is trimmed with a yellow strip of cardstock in behind to line up with the curtains in the image. I stamped "DREAM" with my Rummage magnetic stamp set. Added some stars in the upper part with my SU stipple stamp. Sure is a handy little stamp for so many situations.

Upper right - nature theme. Another collage with very similar elements as the rose one below. Added the lady bug sticker because it just needed "something"!

Lower left - quotation theme. Just found that the image and the quote worked well together and did not need much more. I added a few stamped flourishes around the edges of the image!! Done!!

Lower right - birds theme! Discovered I do not have too many bird images or stamps!! The wording, the birds on the branch and the flourishes are all printed on a transparency! I was careful to place the third brad not too close to the left hand side so they would not intefere with binding. I am not sure what I will use to bind my pages and I am hoping that others will share their techniques. Some of the pages I have already received have elements very near the left edge which would be damaged if I used my Ceralox binding machine!

My 4x4 vintage mingle pages are done!! I had 10 pages to make and was really hoping to get them all done on the weekend and I put the finishing touches on the last page this morning after pressing it over night!!

It has been a lot of fun to work with themes and to find images and supplies to collage. The 4x4 format is very reasonable to work with - allows enough room to be creative yet no so much that it is overwhelming!

The red one on the upper left is for a nature theme. I used part of an old music sheet, dyed paper napkin, paper rose, stickers, a stamped image and a brad. Did some layering, stamping, stippling and distressing. It came out well. Left some unembellished space on the left for binding.

The black one the upper right I did for a travel theme. I did a lot of scouring of my image CDs and the internet to find images for these pages. It is a bit time consuming but you find so many cool images. I used a $1 store sticker, some of my decorative paper, fleur de lis transparency I created, laser printed words using a Dymo font, and some hand embellishing with markers to put this one all together!! Lower left - open theme - I used this angelic child image which I printed on a transparency. I had to back it with cardstock to avoid seeing the business part of the silver photo corners. The bottom border is a transparency I created as well. The heart and the motif are both stickers. I did a bit of stippling before laying on all the elements and purposely left the little bird on the left visible. Lower right - vintage ladies theme! The image is colour printed and cut out. I stippled the scapbook paper and stamped it as well. Added some lace on the right and some flower accents. The button and fiber - just because it needed "something"! I do really enjoy the process of creating. Sitting with a layout for a while, rearranging the elements until they look "right", hunting until you find the embellishment that "works"!! It certainly does help to have a stash of papers, images, stencils, stamps, inks, embellishments!! And low and behold, sometimes you even discover you "need" a few more things!!

About Me

Welcome!!
I am a paper crafter that enjoys creating cards and working on a wide variety of paper projects including handmade paper, paper decorating and altered books. I am exploring mixed media and collage with a view of using my own photographs and art in my projects. Recently, I have branched out into a bit of fabric and stitching.
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